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Variety Of Sound – great free VST plugins

Bootsy’s Variety Of Sound website is a quiet oasis on the internet. And if you are into mixing and mastering music on a computer in a DAW, you will find priceless gems here. And priceless they are, because they are for free.

Bootsy knows his stuff

Computer scientist and musician Herbert L. Goldberg aka “Bootsy” makes these free VST plug-ins. He designs unique DSP algorithms, so his effects always offer something new and innovative, something that’s got the edge over most of the existing – often rather expensive – gear.

ThrillseekerLA: If you are familiar with the famous LA-2A leveling amplifier, you’ll find similar warm and fat sounds coming from this plug-in, only with much more control available, including fast attack and release times and a separate saturation unit.

PreFIX: With this plug-in you can set up and correct many attributes of your audio tracks, including phase alignment, spatial stereo field aspects, overall frequency response and routing. It comes with a gate/expander function, complete with a sidechain path.

NastyVCS: It’s a virtual channel strip with EQ and compression that simulates the characteristics of opto-electric compressors. The plug-in also comes with saturation, a brickwall limiter and a phase alignment tool.

TesslaSE: A great sounding saturator plugin, simulating the effects of transformers in the audio signal chain.

TesslaPRO: Another saturation effect, but with this one you can control the amount of transients that you desire to remain unaffected.

FerricTDS: This plug-in simulates tape machines with all the positive and desirable effects like compression, saturation and limiting, but without any of the negative ones (f.ex. wow and flutter). Sidechain path included as well.

Rescue: Signal designer for subtle Mid/Side and analog sounding saturation effects. The RescueAE version also comes with a limiter.

EpicVerb: All kinds of reverbs in this virtual box, from vintage style plates through natural sounding rooms to enormous and sweet halls. It comes with a great EQ section and an early reflections (ER) only switch.

NastyDLA: Not your typical delay unit. This one comes with a built-in chorus and modulation controls, and capable of creating ping pong effects and tape-echo like saturation.